1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a computer program product.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, video conference systems used for having a teleconference between remote locations via a communication network such as the Internet have become popular. In such a video conference system, a terminal device of the video conference system is used for taking images of the inside of a conference room where one party of the teleconference is present, so that the taken images are converted into digital data and transmitted to the terminal devices for the other parties participating in the teleconference. Each of the terminal devices for the other parties displays the received images on a display device and outputs audio through a speaker. The video conference system configured in this manner enables the participants of the teleconference to have a conference between the remote locations, as if the participants were having the conference in the same location.
In addition, High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI [registered trademark]) devices have also become popular. The HDMI technology is more and more popularly used in devices employed in video conference systems such as those described above.
As a part of the HDMI technology, for example, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Granted Patent No. 4502031) discloses a method by which a video display device stores, into a storage unit, a manufacturer name lookup table in which vendor IDs are associated with manufacturers' names of devices, as well as a device type lookup table in which logical addresses of devices are associated with character strings expressing types of the devices, so that on the basis of a vendor ID and a logical or physical address obtained from an external HDMI device, the manufacturer's name and the type of the device are displayed by referring to the tables stored in the storage unit.
However, in conventional HDMI-compatible video conference systems, the user is not able to find out whether an external device connected to an HDMI input terminal is one that is recommended by the manufacturer. Thus, when using a video conference system, if a user connects a device that is not recommended by the device manufacturer, the connection may not be established properly, or the usage expected by the manufacturer may not be available to the user.
There is a need to make it possible to use an external device serving as a source device connected to an HDMI-compatible information processing apparatus, regardless of whether the external device is recommended or not recommended by the manufacturer.